“The hardest decision of my life was leaving my son with special needs with a friend when he needed me at home because I was afraid to lose my job. We shouldn’t have to choose between our jobs and our families. We need paid leave and sick time. I want to let my voice be heard so people know what is happening at Walmart. What gives me hope: I know with time and effort it can be changed. Even if it isn’t for me – it will change for others so they aren’t making choices between families and job. That is the worst feeling in the world.”

– Regina Mays, OUR Walmart

“In mid-December of 2014, my daughter, Bailey, had a stroke. She was four years old. At the time, I was going through a divorce and working in the retention department of Comcast. My job was to try to hold on to customers who wanted to cancel service. That morning, I noticed Bailey was unable to sit up straight and seemed to have lost feeling on the right side of her body. I took her to Children’s Hospital, where an emergency MRI confirmed she had suffered a stroke on the left side of her brain.

I informed the company right away. A counselor at the hospital helped me send in all the forms for a leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act. This was my baby and I wasn’t going to leave her side. It was hard enough that FMLA was unpaid. But because I hadn’t returned to work in the beginning of 2015, the company wouldn’t allow me to access any benefits that would have started that January, even though I’d worked there for nearly four years.”

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– Staci Lowry, Family Values @ Work and Mothering Justice